Remember: even fact-checkers can have their own biases and filters.
It's important to continue using the strategies of looking at multiple sources and checking the author's credentials and motivations.
Here are links to a few fact-checking resources with information they've provided about their missions and goals:
- The Fact Checker - "The purpose of this website, and an accompanying column in the Sunday print edition of The Washington Post, is to 'truth squad' the statements of political figures regarding issues of great importance, be they national, international or local. It's a big world out there, and so we rely on readers to ask questions and point out statements that need to be checked." Written by Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post's former chief State Department reporter and national business editor.
- FactCheck.org - "We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics...FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state and federal levels."
- Hoax-Slayer - "Hoax-Slayer allows Internet users to check the veracity of a large number of hoaxes...Hoax-Slayer is owned and operated by Brett Christensen from his home office in Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia."
- PolitiFact - "PolitiFact is a nonpartisan fact-checking website to sort out the truth in American politics. It is a project of the Tampa Bay Times, a publishing company based in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Tampa Bay Times is owned by The Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for journalists."
- Snopes - "founded by David Mikkelson, a project begun in 1994 as an expression of his interest in researching internet urban legends that his since grown into the oldest and largest fact-checking site on the Internet."
- TruthOrFiction.com - "a non-partisan website where Internet users can quickly and easily get information about eRumors, warnings, offers, requests for help, myths, hoaxes, virus warnings, and humorous or inspirational stories that are circulated by email...TruthOrFiction.com was founded in 1999 by Rich Buhler, a broadcaster, speaker, author, broadcast journalist, and producer who researched and wrote about rumors and urban legends for more than 30 years."
